Roy Walker - Career

Career

Walker came to fame in 1977 when he won the ITV talent show New Faces, receiving the highest mark ever given to a comedian. He was also a regular on the 1970s ITV stand-up comedy show The Comedians. He appeared on the BBC show Seaside Special on 15 July 1978. Also in 1978 he appeared in two episodes of Blackpool Bonanza. In 1984 he appeared in an episode of the comedy series The Main Attraction.

Walker is most famous for the game show Catchphrase, which he co-hosted with his computer character friend that he created, Mr Chips, from 1986 to 1999. Walker coined his own catchphrases for the show: "Say what you see", and "It's good, but it's not right". On 12 June 1994, he appeared on Surprise, Surprise. Other television appearances in the 1990s included You Bet!, Gagtat, Light Lunch, Wipeout (celebrity special) and TV Nightmares.

Walker appeared as himself in the first episode of Phoenix Nights on 14 January 2001. In 2002, he took part in the comedy game show "It's Only TV... But I Like It" and also appeared on Harry Hill's TV Burp.

In 2004, he appeared in the third series of the reality television series I'm Famous and Frightened! on Living. In 2005, Walker appeared as Monsignor in the romantic drama film The Jealous God, which was released on 9 September. On 4 March 2006, he was the Northern Ireland Regional Presenter in the UK's Eurovision Song Contest selection show Making Your Mind Up. On 12 August 2006, he appeared in an episode entitled The Comics of the documentary The Story of Light Entertainment. And on 14 October, he appeared on Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway. He appeared on The Paul O'Grady Show in 2006 with Frank Carson as mystery guests, they were in disguise in the audience.

On 19 February 2007, he was a guest on the Irish chat show, The Podge and Rodge Show on RTÉ. And on 30 November, he was a guest on the day time chat show Loose Women.

In 2008, Walker was a guest on The Alan Titchmarsh Show. He presented a six-part comedy series for BBC Radio Ulster, The Way We Tell 'Em, as well as appearing on Ready Steady Cook on 5 June 2008. On 10 June, Walker appeared on Big Brother's Big Mouth as a secret special guest. Walker is a noted after dinner speaker and in June 2008 spoke and presented awards at the AIS Presidents Launch at the Dorchester Hotel in London. In 2008, he performed at the Edinburgh Comedy Festival in his own one hour show entitled Goodbye Mr Chips debuting on 31 July, his 68th birthday. He was also team captain on the first series of the BBC Radio 4 panel game Act Your Age.

Walker has appeared (in pre-recorded audiobite form) on The Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1, in features called "Car Park Catchphrase" and "Beep Beep Busters", a spoof of the game show Catchphrase.

Walker starred in the Churchill Insurance adverts, alongside model Megan Hall, seen at an Indian restaurant with the Churchill Dog in 2009. On 26 May 2009, he appeared on the Britain's Got Talent show Britain's Got More Talent. Also in 2009, he appeared in a celebrity edition of the reality cookery show Come Dine With Me, which aired on 1 November - in which he came first. The other contestants were Most Haunted presenter Yvette Fielding, Natasha Hamilton of pop group Atomic Kitten, and former Coronation Street actor Bruce Jones.

It was announced in April 2012 that Walker is set to host the Big Comedy Gala in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Also during April 2012, Walker became the face of SafeNet at a security exhibition.